A Taste For Adventure
by Laurus Nobilis
Summary: At eleven years old, Remus discovers he can be a heartbreaker and the rest of the Marauders discover Jules Verne.


**Disclaimer:** Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling.

**Author's Notes:** Written for Larinzia's "Happy Things Challenge".

**A Taste For Adventure**

It was Saturday morning at last, the perfect time to relax after a tiring week. Remus hadn't imagined that even his first year at Hogwarts was going to be so busy. After breakfast, he didn't stay in the noisy common room, and went to the boys' dormitory instead.

He found Peter there, sitting on his bed and organizing his Chocolate Frog Cards collection. The boy smiled at him as he entered the room. Although Remus hadn't expected to make friends at school, he and Peter had become close very quickly, bonding over the difficulties of Potions homework. They had soon discovered that they had other things in common. Even if they could be mischievous when they wanted to, they were quiet compared to the forces of nature that were James and Sirius.

Remus took the book he had left on his bedside table the previous night and made himself comfortable on the bed. He hadn't read more than a couple of pages when the door flung open.

"_What_ are you doing, Lupin?" he heard James say. "Please tell me that's not a textbook."

"It's called a _novel_," he replied, without looking up. "Some people actually read for fun, you know."

He was forced to take his eyes off the book when someone's hand snatched it from him.

"We know what a novel is, Remus, we just don't know why you like to read them," said Sirius. He ran his fingers through the pages, looking curious. "Hey, this is weird. It's so… _white_."

Sighing, Remus sat up.

"It's a Muggle book. They're made of white paper, not parchment," he explained. James gave him a disbelieving look.

"But the one you were reading last week was yellow."

"Because it was my mother's. The pages turn yellow when they're old."

"It's true," Peter intervened, as the other two boys exchanged an incredulous look. "You can always tell when a Muggle book is old."

"What's the point of that?" asked Sirius. "They could just make them yellow to begin with."

"Anyway, that's not important," James interrupted. "The problem here is that Remus has to do something more exciting than reading, once in a while."

"Like what?" Remus asked, knowing that his definition of "exciting" was suspiciously similar to "off-limits".

"Quidditch, for example."

True enough: off-limits, at least until they were in second year.

"Actually," he said, "I'm not interested in Quidditch."

Three boys gasped in unison. Remus turned to Peter, shocked.

"You told me you didn't like it either!"

"I said I didn't like _playing_ it," his friend corrected, "but I like watching it. Who isn't interested in Quidditch?"

Well, wasn't that just great. If they already thought he was strange because of something so silly, who knew what could happen if they found out… But Remus didn't want to think about that, so he changed the subject.

"Books can be exciting, too," he said. "The one I was _trying_ to read is an adventure story."

"About what?" James asked. He seemed genuinely interested, and Remus got enthusiastic.

"It's about this group of people who escape from a city in a hot air balloon," he began, "but then it falls and they're stranded on an island – "

"What's a hot air balloon?" Sirius interrupted him.

"It's something that Muggles use to fly. They only do it for fun now, but when the book was written, it was really important," Remus explained. "And in other books, this author guessed a lot of things that Muggles would invent later! Like machines to travel underwater, or into space…"

"Really? Was he a Seer?" said James. Remus sighed.

"No, I told you he was a Muggle. He looked at the latest inventions, and figured out what might come next."

Suddenly, they were interrupted by Peter's stifled chuckle, which soon became actual laughter. He grinned when he realized his friends were staring.

"Well, James said that, and… I just imagined Sibyll Trelawney writing adventure stories."

He burst out laughing again, but this time the others joined him. James finally managed to stop for enough time to say something.

"You mean she's been annoying you, too? I couldn't get her away from me the other day. 'Can I read your tea leaves?' 'Is it true that there are Seers in your family?' 'You're going to suffer a horrible and early death!' She's completely mental, I tell you."

"Bah, she tells the death thing to everyone," Sirius said with a shrug. "I told her to give the news to Narcissa, that might make her happy…"

"She hasn't said anything like that to me," Remus intervened, puzzled. "Even though she's constantly chasing me…"

"Well, of course," Sirius replied, looking as if he had just heard the most obvious thing in the world.

"She wouldn't want her boyfriend to die, would she?" James completed the thought.

Remus turned red, then pale.

"You don't _really_ think she likes me, do you?" he asked, sounding much more nervous than he had intended to. "I mean, she's –"

"Insane," Peter said.

"Ugly," Sirius continued.

"Clingy," James added.

"To begin with!" Remus exclaimed. He immediately felt bad about it, though, and tried to correct it. "I mean, I'm sure there are some nice things about her, but…"

"… she hides them well?" James suggested.

"But I don't _like_ her," said Remus. "Oh, no, what if she really fancies me? I can't run away from her forever!"

"Well, you'll have to try," Peter told him. "You don't want her to catch you."

"Remus the heartbreaker!" Sirius teased, laughing. "Just try not to get too noticed, or James here might get jealous."

"_Hey_!"

It was lucky that they were too busy fighting and Peter laughing at them, Remus thought, because then they wouldn't be paying attention to his blush. Then he discovered that he _wasn't_ blushing. It was a very strange thing to discover, that it was actually nice to be fancied by someone.

Although avoiding Sibyll Trelawney might prove to be even more of an adventure than Quidditch…


End file.
